Culture of ancient Rome

Tubaplayer (upper right) in areliefdepictingMarcus Aureliusintriumphparade

Musicians: a detail from theZliten mosaic(2nd century AD). The whole mosaic showed them as accompanyinggladiatorcombat and wild-animal events in the arena: from left, thetuba,hydraulis(water pipe organ), and twocornua

Horn player on theLudovisi sarcophagus(3rd century)

Ancient Roman culturegrew through the almost 1200 years of Rome'scivilization.TheRomansconquered many people and brought back from their wars many things from each land. Their way of life was a mix of manycultures,influences, andreligions.Starting in the 2nd century BC,Greekinfluence became very important.Architecture,painting,sculpture,laws,andliteraturegrew to a high level.Slaves,andChristianswere treated differently by different rulers. Rome was a trading nation which kept military control over a wide range of peoples, mostly around theMediterranean.

Classes

There were four classes of people in Rome: thearistocrats,theequestrians,the commoncitizens,and theslaves.The aristocrat class had about 300 families, mostlysenators.The aristocrat class was very powerful. The equestrians or “equites” weremerchants,governmentbuilders, andbankerswho were usually less rich.The common citizens werefarmers,industrial workers,and the citymob.Slaves had to work hard and were usually released when they became old.Some slaves were trained to begladiatorsfor people to watch. Other slaves worked in rich homes as doorkeepers,litter-bearers, messengers, or servants. Some Greek slaves wereteacherswho taught their language, or doctors.

Religion

The original Roman religion hadmany gods,with stories calledRoman mythology.

Christianity

At the time of the birth ofJesus,the Roman Empire ruled the entireMediterraneanarea.Jesus taught to worshipGodonly. BecauseChristiansworshiped only God and did not join in the festivals to other gods,Romansthought they wereunpatriotic.Many Christians werecrucified.Romanspersecutedthem for many years. Sometimes they were killed by animals for a show.

However,Christianitystill spread in the Roman Empire. A great change took place whenConstantine Ibecame emperor. He moved the capital of the empire toByzantium,converted to Christianity, and protected Christians from harm. Many Romans continued to worship the old gods.

House

See the main article:Roman house

In the Imperial Age, the poorer Roman houses were built ofsun-driedbrick.These houses only had one room.In this one room the family slept, ate, and had visitors. Richer people hadmansions.Statuesandpaintingswere shown. Small rooms were used as living and dining places. In the center there was acourtwith agarden.It was decorated withfountains,plants,andflowers.Floors were often made ofmosaics,tiles,ormarblewith lots of different colors.Some walls were painted.Dishes were made ofpotteryorglass.There wasplumbingin some houses and in the publicbaths,and asewersystem was used.Hot air warmed the house from a heating system. Many rich Romans had two houses, one in the town and one in the country.

Poor people lived in buildings where the top floors were for the poorest. Sometimes they could have as many as 200 steps to reach them.Manyfireshappened. Buckets of water were used to put out fires, though many times it did not work.

Meals

Poor people atevegetables,fish,salt,cheese,fruits,nuts,andoliveoil.Meat, especiallybeef,was usually not eaten. Breakfast was usually not eaten and, for lunch, leftovers were used.Rich people ate dinner before four in the afternoon. They usually ate from three to ten hours. Hands were washed between the courses.One emperor served 22 courses at his dinner parties. If visitors were invited to dinner, slaves were sent to bring them on time, because water clocks did not always work the same.People enjoyed eatinggrapesfordessert.At first, coldclamsandoysterswere eaten for dessert, but later people ate them at the beginning of a meal instead.

Public baths

The public baths were used not only for bathing. Besides the hot water rooms and cold water rooms, there weregardens,stadiums,artgalleries,libraries,and places to eat. There were even underground passageways to get to places more easily.Aqueductsfed water for the baths. They were so well built that some are still used.

The Romans were very proud of their aqueducts. They thought they were better than the "useless"Egyptianpyramids.They also used these for drinking water.

Ships

Big ships calledquinqueremeshad 300 people to row with oars. They could travel 100miles(160 km) a day. Trade paths were protected from pirates. Many ships carried food; others carriedpearls,pepper,cotton,cinnamon,andsilk.Apoundofsilk,at that time, cost a pound ofgold.

Arts

The language of Rome has influenced many cultures. Its influence can be seen in thisLatinBiblefrom 1407.

Language and literature

The nativelanguageof the Romans wasLatin.ItsAlpha betwas based on theEtruscan Alpha bet,which was in turn based on theGreek Alpha bet.The Romans wrote plays. The Romans were usually practical, and kept the Grecianculturealive.

The surviving Latinliteratureis inClassical Latinfrom the 1st century BC. Thespoken languageof the Roman Empire wasVulgar Latin,which differed from Classical Latin ingrammarandvocabulary,and eventually inpronunciation.Out of Latin camePortuguese,Spanish,French,andItalian.Latin was used formedicineandsciencewords.

Latinremained the main written language of the Roman Empire.Greekbecame the language spoken by the well-educated elite, because most of the literature studied by Romans was written in Greek. Romanliteraturewas much influenced byGreekliterature.Some of the best known examples are theAeneidbyVirgil,Plutarch'sLives of Famous Men,andOdesbyHorace.

In the eastern half of the Roman Empire, which later became theByzantine Empire,Latin did not replace Greek at all. After the death ofJustinian,Greek became the official language of the Byzantine government.The expansion of the Roman Empire spread Latin throughout Europe. Vulgar Latin evolved intodialectsin different locations, gradually changing into the distinctRomance languages.

Architecture

The Romans built greatroadsandbridges.Many of theaqueductsthey made are still there and used. They also used domes and arches in many of their biggest buildings. Their buildings were decorated withmosaicson the floors, andmuralpaintings done directly on the walls.

Rome had the firsthospitalsin the Western World. They also had the first system of statemedicinefor poor people.

Music

Woman playing akithara.Akitharais a greekinstrument.

The Romans' music was an important part of their lives. Song (known ascarmen) was part of almost every social occasion. Music accompanied spectacles and events in thearena.It was part of the performing arts form calledpantomimus,an early form of story ballet that combined expressive dancing, instrumental music and a sunglibretto.

They were influenced byEtruscanandGreekmusic.What theRomanssang simply followed the natural melody of the song..

Related pages

• Ancient Rome
• Roman Empire
• Clothing in Ancient Rome